RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK
A PERSONAL REVIEW OF RESTAURANTS AROUND THE WORLD

GIOVANNI'S
SAIPAN, COMMONWEALTH OF THE NORTHERN MARIANAS, USA

We don't usually make it a practice to review hotel restaurants unless they are very good.  And this one is very good!

Tropical Lobby of the Hyatt Regency

Giovanni's is located at the Hyatt Regency Saipan on Micro Beach and serves up some very tasty and authentic Italian food.  To start with, they offer a big antipasti buffet to get your taste buds revved up.  Then it's onto the main courses.

You can do like real Italians do and start with a pasta appetizer and then move onto your main course of meat or seafood.  Or you can do it the American way and make your main meal a pasta dish.

My wife loves minestrone and said her bowl was some of the best she's ever had.  I nibbled at the antipasti bar and sampled roasted eggplant, various slalumis/salamis and other goodies.

For our main courses, we each went with a big pasta dish.  She had lasagna and I had a baked ziti with lots of rich cheese.  Both were just wonderful.  And the fresh bread was terrific.

The service was cheerful and excellent.  And they had a piano player which added nice touch.  Sometimes "dinner music" can be a bit too much but this was right on the mark.

If you ever find yourself traveling to Saipan, we'd highly recommend Giovanni's even if you're not staying at the Hyatt Regency there.